Hundreds of police officers have been deployed after heavily armed men attacked a prison convoy in France – with a convict who is reportedly nicknamed “The Fly” having escaped during the raid.
Two male prison officers have been shot dead and three others were seriously injured during the ambush on a motorway in Incarville in northwest France at around 9am local time.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s minister of justice, has said one of the prison officers who was killed leaves behind a wife who was five months pregnant, while the other was a 21-year-old father-of-two.
He added that two of those who were injured are in a critical condition.
The dead and injured prison officers were transporting a convict, named in French media as Mohamed Amra, when they came under heavy fire, according to reports in the country.
Footage from the scene shows two hooded men with guns patrolling the area near a tollbooth on the A154 motorway.
Video also shows what appears to be the aftermath of a collision between a van linked to the prison convoy and a black vehicle.
Several men had used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source told the French news agency AFP.
One of the vehicles used in the attack was found burned-out in a location which was not specified by the police source.
Amra had been serving an 18-month sentence for “aggravated thefts” in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, before his escape, according to BFM TV.
The French broadcaster added that his nickname is “The Fly”.
A police source said Amra was also suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had reportedly appeared before a judge in Rouen on Tuesday morning accused of attempted homicide.
The attack on the prison van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, according to reports in France.
Footage shows the aftermath of a collision
A prison source told Le Parisien that the escaped inmate had tried to saw the bars off his cell two days ago.
He had reportedly been placed in solitary confinement and his surveillance level had been raised after the escape attempt.
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Laure Beccuau, the public prosecutor of Paris, has said Amra was a “particularly monitored detainee” while in prison.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said “several hundred police officers” were deployed to “find these criminals” following the attack on the convoy on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Mr Dupond-Moretti said: “Everything, I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime.
“These are people for whom life weighs nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged, and they will be punished according to the crime they committed.”
French President Emmanuel Macron later responded to the attack on social media.
Writing on X, he said: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all.
“The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
